Pages

Sunday, 12 April 2015

Ten years of parenting

I saw this thing on Facebook the other day: "Getting your baby to sleep in 40 seconds". That'd be right I thought. After all my years of trying to get non-sleepers to sleep, they have now discovered the 'solution'.

I don't normally click through those links anymore. I am past the baby years, but I was curious, so I had a look. I was more than a little excited to read from the comments that it doesn't actually work. That may sound be mean but if you could only have seen the amount of bum-pat-101 that I endured, you'd be mean too.

The fact that people tried the miracle sleep technique is indicative of the fact that not much has changed in the past 10 years since I started having babies. Babies still suck and they still don't come with a manual. Parents would do just about anything to get their children to sleep. In fact, they'd do just about anything for their children full stop.

My eldest baby is about to be 10. He's dealing with the double-digit thing*; I'm dealing with the fact that for the past 10 years I have been a Mum. I still don't know much about this parenting gig. Every day we fudge our way through, hoping that we are heading in the right direction.

I do know that I am glad that we ended up having kids, even if we didn't really plan them, when we did. Those four people are the best four people we could have hoped to make.

I know that you can't really plan your family, you just get what you get. This was my mantra during the twin pregnancy.

I know that you know you're done when you're done and you don't feel done before then. I am 100% done.

I know that you're own kids are not like Other People's Kids. OPKs are far less tolerable in my experience.

I know that you can feel like you can't go on, that you have nothing to give but they still feel loved, included and part of your world. It may be the fact that children are little narcissists and don't notice the needs of those around them, or it could be that you are better at putting your kids' needs before your own, either way, they feel the love.

I can't remember what it was like before four little people started calling me Mum. It feels like the longest decade of my life, but also the shortest. I can't wait to see how they grow and change over the next decade. If it is anything like the last 10 years, I am not equipped to imagine but we are in for a roller coaster ride. The best roller coaster I ever went on.

What have your learnt on your parenting journey?

* He tells me he won't add another number until he is 100 years old. And that is 90 years away. And it is really boring having to wait that long for another digit!